Vinicius Jr handed four-game ban and will miss El Clasico

Real Madrid will face Barcelona without Vinicius Jr.

The Brazil forward has been given a four-game ban and will miss El Clasico, the famous meeting of Spain's two biggest clubs, on 25 October, according to BBC.

It follows a strange few minutes in Madrid's 1-0 win against Villarreal on Saturday. Vinicius came on as a substitute after 52 minutes and thought he had scored. The referee ruled the goal out after a pitchside review, which is a check of video replays at the side of the pitch, showed he had pulled defender Nathan Saliba's hair in the build-up. He was sent off, which means shown a red card and ordered to leave the game.

Spain's football federation disciplinary committee split the punishment in two. It gave him two games for behaving violently while not in a position to challenge for the ball. It added a further two matches for protests to officials.

That leaves Madrid without one of their main attackers for four La Liga matches. He will miss Sevilla on 18 October, Barcelona away on 25 October, Racing Santander on 1 November and Valencia on 7 November. The Barcelona game is scheduled to be played away in Catalonia, according to Yahoo Sports.

Vinicius later apologised on social media. He said he was sorry to the team and the Real Madrid fans.

Madrid manager Jose Mourinho did not attend the post-match news conference after the Villarreal game.

For fans, this means the next Clasico loses one of its headline acts. It is the fixture that stops the country for 90 minutes, and Madrid will now have to find another way to stretch Barcelona without Vinicius running at defenders.